Our Life and Adventures

Things I’ll Miss/Things I won’t

As our time in China winds to a close (our contracts finish in one month), it’s kind of a nostalgic time. While on the one hand we’re really excited about going home, it’s also kind of bittersweet. Here are 5 things I’ll miss and another couple I won’t (presented in no particular order.)

{WILL MISS} Living in a Cashless Society

While people still carry money, most of the time you can pay for everything you need with your phone. You can pull up a QR code (think bar code) linked to your bank account and you’re all set to pay for things in restaurants, grocery stores and even street vendors. WeChat wallet is great and I’m hoping the US will catch up soon.

{WON’T MISS} Not Being Able to (proficiently) Speak the Local Language

Every day has its challenges. Whether it’s not being able to direct a delivery man or ask simple questions when checking in to a hotel– it can be rather frustrating. It also led to this mishap– Mistakes Were Made.

Day 2- darker

{WILL MISS} My Students

….. or at least some of them. Check out this cutie named Joe. When we learned the sea creatures unit, he acted out every single animal.

Joe the Squid

{WON’T MISS}The Schedule

Because we’re working when kids are out of school, we work Saturday/Sunday and have our weekend on Tuesday/Wednesday. This made it a lot harder to do things like markets and also make friends outside of our company.

{WILL MISS} Cheap Stuff

Because it’s cheap, I usually buy fresh flowers every week or two. We also eat out almost every meal since it’s just as cheap as cooking. For more info on what’s cheap (and what’s not in China), you can check out this post–What’s Cheap and What’s Not in China

{WON’T MISS} Squatty Potties

I kind of just hate Chinese bathrooms. They’re stinky and inconvenient. For the longer rant, you can read this old post Toilet Talk.

{WILL MISS} Travelling

While I know that we’ll continue travelling when back in the US, living in China for only one year gave us a real sense of urgency. We felt like we needed to see as much as we could and traveled out of Beijing probably once a month. I hope that planning and going stays with us, but I will miss traveling in China. For old travel posts, you can look here The Great Wall and Drift King, here A Tropical Chinese Paradise or here The Magnificent, Splendid Huashan just to name a few.

{WON’T MISS} Pollution

Not feeling comfortable running outside or feeling your throat hurting because of smoggy gray skies is no bueno. Also, there were literally 3 days when kids couldn’t come to school because the government issued a red alert. Like I said, sometimes the pollution is real bad…

{WILL MISS} Friends

Alex and I have both made friends here and some friendships that we want to continue. It’s always harder when you’re not in the same place, but we’re going to try to make it work!

So, all in all, it’s a bittersweet time. But, looking back, there were good things and bad, but I still wouldn’t change it.